Heca 4 was the sheriff of Devon at the time of the Conquest and held seven estates in south Devon TRE, with a combined assessment of 12 hides and a total value of £16 10s.
Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB
List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB
Holder 1066
Shire
Phil. ref.
Vill
Holder 1066 DB Spelling
Holder 1066
Lord 1066
Tenant-in-Chief 1086
1086
subtenant
Fiscal value
1066
value
1086 value
Holder 1066 ID conf.
Show on map
Devon
17,32
Loddiswell
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
-
2.00
5.00
5.00
B
Map
Devon
17,38
West Portlemouth
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
Fulk 'of Portlemouth'
1.00
2.00
0.50
B
Map
Devon
17,49
Charleton
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
-
5.00
5.00
5.00
B
Map
Devon
17,64
Ringmore
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
Ralph de La Pommeraye
1.50
1.50
1.50
B
Map
Devon
17,69
Eggbuckland
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
-
1.50
2.50
2.50
B
Map
Devon
17,95
Langdon
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
Judhael of Totnes
Waldin
0.50
0.50
0.50
B
Map
Devon
21,18
Goosewell
Heche
Heca, sheriff of Devon
-
William de Poilley
Robert 'the man of William de Poilley'
0.50
0.25
0.25
B
Map
Total
12.00
16.75
15.25
There are only seven estates in DB whose TRE holder was called Heca, and all are located within a 19-mile stretch of south Devon close to its coast or estuaries. Given the extreme rarity of the name Heca, the sizes of the estates involved, their relatively close grouping and the size of the overall holding that they would represent, it is almost certain that all of these estates were held TRE by the same man, Heca 4.
In the Exon entry (322b1) relating to the estate at West Portlemouth, Heca is described as vicecomes; the obvious conclusion is that he was sheriff of Devon at the time of the Conquest, although there is no independent confirmation of this (Green 1990: 35).
It is highly likely that Heca gave his name to one of his estates, the first element of the modern place-name Eggbuckland (simply Bocheland in DB) being derived from Heca (Gover et al. 1931-2: 227; von Feilitzen 1937: 228 n.5).
Although the name Heca is extremely rare in pre-Conquest England, the initial Hec- is consistent throughout the DB and Exon spellings and this strongly suggests that the name is distinct from that of Haca 1 (another Devon landholder TRE with a couple of small estates some 40 miles from those of Heca 4), the DB and Exon spellings of whose name have an equally consistent initial Hac-.
Bibliography
Gover et al. 1931-2: J. E. B. Gover, A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Devon, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1931-2)
Green 1990: J. A. Green, English Sheriffs to 1154, Public Record Office Handbooks, 24 (London, 1990)
von Feilitzen 1937: O. von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (Uppsala, 1937)
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